𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 | h. marin

3

xxx

"Whose idea was this again?" Hanna asked with a groan, trudging through the forest with her six-inch heels. "Emily's mom." Spencer answered, holding onto Cassandra's hand for support through their little adventure. 

"The shed was me." Emily intervened, "My mom just said we should do something for us." 

Hanna rolled her eyes, "Well, couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?" she pushed her hand through a tree branch that almost caught her purse. "They're not mosquitoes, they're gnats." Aria said. 

"Whatever! They're small and annoying and they're flying up my nose!" Hanna hissed, speeding up her pace. "They're attracted to your perfume and your hair product and your lip gloss." Spencer listed, and Hanna turned around with a raised eyebrow. "So, what are you saying? I attract flies?"

"Gnats." Aria corrected. "Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Cassandra interrupted, pushing her sunglasses higher up her nose to avoid the sun hitting her blue eyes. "No, this is it. I remember that tree," Spencer pointed at a big tree, letting Cassandra's hand fall, "It's the halfway point. There's 136 steps towards the shed."

"Of course you'd remember something like that." Cassandra sarcastically spoke with a fond smile. "Have you been out here since... Alison?" Aria questioned. "Me? No. No way." Spencer shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"But you remember that tree?" 

Hanna lifted her hands up, "You guys it's not that weird. I mean we used to come out here in eighth grade like, every day. Even after." she defended the brunette. "I think this is totally the wrong place to do this, whatever you call it shrine." Spencer added. 

"It's not a shrine, it's just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?" Emily said, holding her fingers together. "Doing it way out here makes it look like we have something to hide." Spencer mumbled. 

"You're worried what other people think?" Emily asked. "Well, aren't you?" Spencer accused, "Do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?" At the mention of the cop, Hanna silently kept moving forward with a frown. 

"Hanna, why are you so quiet?" Cassandra furrowed her perfectly sculpted brows. "I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth." she snapped. "You're allowed to have an opinion on this." Emily reassured her blonde friend. 

The Marin daughter stopped and looked at the brunette. "You want my opinion? I say we hold off and not remember her till we know for sure she's not still here." 

"What?"

"What are you talking about?" 

"You think she's still alive?" Emily said, her mouth falling open. "Hanna, they found her body." Spencer reminded her. "Stop, I'm officially scared. Can we just not-" Aria wiped her forehead, clutching her bag. 

"You know what? You asked for my opinion. I don't believe she's really gone." Hanna interrupted; she kept moving when her comment was met with silence. 

"We went to her funeral!" Spencer yelled behind her, following her trail. "Yeah, and when we left, we all got a text from her." Hanna explained, shoving more stuff out of her way. 

"It wasn't her. Someone is messing with us." Emily rejected the silly idea. "How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages? I mean how does this "A" person know stuff only Ali knew." Hanna repeated, grabbing Cassandra's shoulder to stop her from falling down the short jump that they needed to make.